Chris Krebs, the former chief of cybersecurity at DHS, has been metaphorically executed because he said that the election just held was the most secure in U.S. history.
Bringing down the ax — or pulling the trigger — was Trump campaign attorney Joe diGenova. He apparently took issue with Krebs’ appearance on CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday night and appeared on The Howie Carr Show to rant.
“Anybody who thinks that this election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity [for Trump]. That guy is a class-A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot,” diGenova said, as reported by The Bulwark.
Yes, yes. Hanging is too good for him. Take him out back and cut him open, rip out his entrails, and then cut him into four pieces, sending them to the four corners of the kingdom…er, country.
Maybe we could hang the entrails from the top of the Washington Monument.
Now, everyone is eager to point out that it doesn’t matter if diGenova was making an actual threat — a curious idea since Krebs has committed no crime and couldn’t be executed legally by anyone in the United States — or was simply tossing red meat to the Trump worshippers who hang on every insult, every exaggeration, every bombastic statement in support of their hero and his sacred cause.
DiGenova was using metaphor to drive home the point that Krebs had transgressed against his former employer. Indeed, would there be such a brouhaha if diGenova had quoted Dante?
Dante’s final or ninth circle of hell was reserved for, among others, those who practiced treachery against “their loved ones, friends, best friends, countries, cities, guests and even to their masters.” The ninth circle was filled with ice and transgressors were buried up to their necks in a particularly gruesome fashion.
But that doesn’t have quite the ring to it that threatening to draw and quarter Krebs does.
Everyone knows that diGenova was not being serious. He was not wishing any harm would come to Mr. Krebs. But diGenova’s loose lips gave the enemies of Trump a perfect opening to pretend to be outraged.
This is not just a random Parler troll trying to get attention. This is an attorney speaking on behalf of the President of the United States’ re-election campaign. And while it may read like a macabre joke, the direct nature of diGenova’s comments make it impossible to interpret as anything other than a real wish/threat against a public servant for offering truthful testimony.
Oh, for God’s sake, GROW UP! It’s more than possible to interpret what diGenova said as anything other than “a real wish/threat against a public servant for offering truthful testimony.” You have to be bat-guano crazy to believe it was an actual threat of physical violence against Krebs. If there’s one person anyone out there who thinks that diGenova was serious about drawing and quartering another human being, they belong in a padded room — permanently.
It was metaphor — crude, exaggerated, uncalled for, extremely impolite, and just plain dumb. But call it what it was, not what you think will score political points with anyone except other brain-dead hyperpartisan nincompoops.
Public discourse has coarsened over the last decade and along with it, a terrible abuse of the English language.
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